Pursuant to the decision taken last year on SUEN’s Coordination Office role under the Blue Peace in the Middle East Initiative, the 1st Managing Committee Meeting of 2019 was held on 26-27 March, 2019 in SUEN. As per the contract signed recently between SUEN and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), SUEN will be acting as the Coordination Office of the Blue Peace in the Middle East of which the structure is illustrated below.
SUEN will also be conducting the joint project addressing agricultural water use efficiency. As illustrated hereunder, a working group will be formed to ensure the effective implementation of the project.
Representatives of member countries of Blue Peace in the Middle East participated in the 1st Managing Committee Meeting, respectively Mr. Mohammedamin Faris Amin from Iraqi Parliament and Mar. Ali Ghaleb Abdulkhaleq A. Wahab from Ministry of Water Resources of Iraq, Ms. Zeina Majdalani from Prime Minister Office of Lebanon and Ms. Rana El Hajj from American University of Beirut, Dr. Hakam Alalami from Majlis of El Hassan bin Talal and Dr. Maysoon Zoubi from Higher Population Council of Jordan, and Retired Undersecretary of Ministry of Environment and Forestry of Turkey Dr. Hasan Z. Sarikaya and Dr. Ahmet Mete Saatçi from Turkish Water Institute with the officers from Middle East Unit of SDC and Ms. Nathalie Marti, Consul General of Switzerland in Istanbul.
The Rules and Procedures of the Managing Committee, the work plans of the Coordination Office and the Project named as Increasing Agricultural Water Use Efficiency have been adopted at the meeting.
Dr. Hasan Sarıkaya has been unanimously selected as the Chair of the Managing Committee for 2 years. The Managing Committee members will also be acting as national focal points (NFPs) for their countries until the designation process of NFPs is completed.
Designed as a high-level advisory body and an interface between influential leaders and the Initiative to convey strategic outcomes to decision makers, the Political Advisory Committee’s structure and rules were discussed as well. It is agreed that HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal will invite the countries to nominate their members of Policy Advisory Committee.
In addition, establishing a data bank to store data among member countries of the Blue Peace in the Middle East, preparing questionnaires to address good practices on agricultural water use efficiency and sharing experiences on modern irrigation technics were discussed in the meeting.
The detailed information on the future training program to be organized and reporting processes of the Coordination Office as well as the Project on Increasing Agricultural Water Use Efficiency were presented by SUEN to the Managing Committee.